Arts & Fin ertainment

C About

Berick Plays Brahms

Prior to his
appointment as
professor of violin
at the University of
Michigan, Israeli-
born violinist
Yehonatan Berick, a
prizewinner at the
1993 Naumburg
competition and
a recipient of the
Yehonatan Berick
1996-97 Prix Opus,
was on the facul-
ties of McGill University and the Eastman
School of Music. In addition to his teaching
duties, he is in high demand internationally
as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musi-
cian.
Berick, who currently plays on a vio-
lin by Honore Derazy Pere from 1852,
and pianist John Ellis will perform an
all-Brahms concert 7:30 p.m. Friday,
April 18, in the Presentation Room of
the VisTaTech Center located on the

Livonia campus of
Schindler's List" during
Schoolcraft College.
"An Evening with John
The evening's selec-
Williams"
8 p.m. Friday,
Gail Zinimerman
tions include Sonata
April
11,
at
Orchestra
Arts Editor
No. 1 in G Major,
Hall in the Max M.
Sonata No. 2 in
Fisher Music Center in
A Minor, and Sonata No. 3 in D Minor.
Detroit.
Tickets are $20 and include a reception
Though tickets are sold out, fans will
following the concert.
have an additional opportunity to hear the
For tickets, call (734) 462-4403 or go to
conductor's music in an open rehearsal
www.schoolcraft.edu/foundation/events.
beginning 10 a.m. Thursday, April 10, in
Orchestra Hall, followed by a celebrity lun-
cheon catered by Opus One in the Music
Schindler Composer
Box at 11:30 a.m., during which Williams
Composing the score for Schindler's List
will speak about his career.
"was a fantastic opportunity for music
Tickets are $60-$150 for the rehearsal
and a singular honor for me:' John
and lunch (proceeds benefit the DSO edu-
Williams has said. "Part of the musical
cation and outreach programs); $20 for the
assignment of Schindler's Lit was to make open rehearsal only. (313) 576-5154.
a statement that even in these years of
Resident Evil
unspeakable tragedy there were loving
aspects and beautiful aspects of Jewish life
... even then."
Bite Me: The Movie, a locally produced com-
Williams will conduct the Detroit
edy horror film about vampires set in 1980s
Symphony Orchestra in "Theme from
Michigan and featuring a lead protagonist

Who is Jewish, will be screened 7:30 and 10
p.m. Thursday and 11:20 p.m. Friday, April
10-11, at the Novi Emagine Theater in Novi.
The plot revolves around a group of co-
workers who go up north for the weekend;
one by one they disappear and become
vampires. To the rescue comes Alexander
Caleb (AC), a Jewish Tom Cruise look-alike
"secret geek" who tries to thwart the forces
of evil.
Producer/co-screenwriter Shawn Uridge
says the inspiration for making AC Jewish
came not only from his mother's Jewish
heritage but the idea that "although crosses
are typically used to ward off vampires in
movies, I've never seen a Star of David used
and wanted to incorporate that."
Jewish members of the cast include
Todd L. Levitt as Peterson L. Goldstein,
Daryl Treger as Smokin' Joe, Lily Clairwell
as Autumn and Justin Dickerson as
Lunchbucket.
Tickets are $8 and are available for
advance sale at the Web site
www.OfficialBiteMeTheMovie.com .

FYI: For Arts related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to: Gail Zimmerman, JN Out &
About, The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48034; fax us at (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to gzimmerman®thejewishnews.com . Notice must be received at least three weeks before the scheduled event.
Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. Alf events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.

ews

Nate Bloom

411:

Special to the Jewish News

Film Openings

Q

4110

B16

Opening Friday, April 18, is Chicago
10, director-writer Brett Morgen's
film on the clashes between police
and anti-war demon-
strators outside the
1968 Democratic
National Convention.
The film's title
refers to the origi-
nal eight indicted
activists, plus
their two defense
Sarah Jessica
lawyers, Leonard
Parker
Weinglass and
William Kunstler. Hank Azaria and
Liev Schreiber provide narration.
(See opposite page for an interview
with Morgen.)
Opening Friday, April 11, is Smart
People, a comedy-drama starring
Dennis Quaid as a self-absorbed
widowed college professor who has
alienated his teenage son and turned
his teenage daughter (Ellen Page of
Juno fame) into a friendless over-

April 10 * 2008

achiever. Quaid's character gets into
a serious accident and is treated
by a doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker)
who is a former student of his with
a crush.

Messing Around
Debra Messing, 38,

currently is filming
Humboldt Park in
Chicago. The movie
is described as the
first major holiday
film (i.e., Christmas)
about a Latino fam-
Debra Messing
ily. Three adult sib-
lings of the Puerto
Rican Rodriguez family return to
Chicago to spend Christmas with
their parents (Alfred Molina and
Elizabeth Pena). One son (John
Leguizamo) is a New York lawyer
who is struggling to start a fam-
ily with his Jewish wife, played by
Messing.
This fall, Messing will star . in the
new USA cable series The Starter
Wife, which is based on the success-
ful 2007 miniseries of the same

name about a Hollywood executive's
wife who was "traded in" for a
younger model. Messing earned
Emmy and Golden Globe nomina-
tions for her portrayal of the lead
character in the miniseries. The 10-
episode USA series will pick up the
story of Messing's character, Molly
Kagan.

By George
Jason Alexander, 47, may never

match the success he had on

Seinfeld, but he absolutely hasn't

retired. His own TV series have not
succeeded, but he has kept busy on
the stage (The Producers) and in
TV guest shots (he recently play-
ing Julia Louis-Dreyfus' gynecolo-
gist on The New Adventures of Old

Christine).

Alexander has been married to
screenwriter Daena Title since 1981;
they have two sons, Gabe, 17, and
Noah, 12.
Recently, Alexander was in
Australia playing a comedy festival.
In the last two years, he has honed
a stage act that combines elements

of stand-up comedy
and musical num-
bers.
Alexander told
an Australian
paper that he vis-
ited Israel and the
Palestinian terri-
Jason
tories last year. He
Alexander
was in a Palestinian
area, he said, "when
two Arabs suddenly turned and
pointed at me. For a few seconds, I
must admit, I was worried. But then
the guys broke into a smile and
began yelling, 'George, George...' You
would have thought I was their long-
lost cousin.
"Even today I'm stunned that
the adventures of what has to be
assumed to be four selfish New York
Jews would appeal to viewers in the
Palestinian territories. It amazes
me that they see these people as so
real, and they appreciate the humor
and oddity. I always thought Seinfeld
would never travel, but it seems to
have cut through all demographics
for reasons I still can't explain." _